Hatred By Blood: A Political Extermination
by Simply Grim
Summary: An AU story exploring the possibilities in an original clan in Konoha's rippling influence on The Elemental Nations and the life of its young prodigy. (OC)
1. Chapter 1: The Final Day of Normalcy

Chapter 1:

The Beginning of the Beginning

or

The Final Day of Normalcy

"Father, how long until we reach Kirigakure?" Aoichi Noroku asked as he walked alongside his father down a frozen road in Wave Country.

"A few more days' travel at our pace, we have to go slower than most to keep up our training and your treatments but it shouldn't make much of a difference" His father responded with a smile as they marched onward.

Noroku looked to be 10, fit and lean though a bit muscular for his age with long spiked powder-blue hair. He wore a robe, although the pale blue collar was all that was visible above a thick layer of matching rings, varying in size by where they were assorted with the largest at 12 in. in diameter and the smallest around 4 in. in diameter and slightly stacked around him like scales with a few smaller ones to the top. Above the small metallic blue rings his robe extended halfway up his neck and curved down slightly, providing a bit of protection against the sharp bladed metal. Around his waist, above the metal garment was a chain metal belt with weapons pouches hanging from it on either side of his waist. Below the mostly-hidden robe he wore a black pair of trousers with matching boots that had little white crystals of ice sticking to the bottoms as snow crunched beneath with every footstep.

His father, Kazuki, looked to be a larger, older form of the boy wearing a matching outfit as they marched down that icy trail. His hair was shorter, spiking up in a choppy wild manner above his Konohan hitai-ite, and he wore more layers of the blue metal rings that stacked around three-layers thick around his form. He looked dignified there, standing straight with his son on that deserted path, as the leader of a clan should.

"This looks like as good a place to set up camp as any," Kazuki announced to his son as they deterred from the path into a small clearing, "I'll unpack our bags while you go out and look for some firewood. Make sure you stay within earshot and call out if anything bad happens." He smiled as his son went out into the forest and reached down, putting his palm to the ground beneath the snow and whispering "Katon: Shinchoono Honoo" as a small circle of fire expanded from his wrist and stopped at the tree line, not touching the ground beneath but melting all snow and ice in the clearing.

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Noroku looked around before closing his pale blue eyes and thinking to himself 'Kami no Aoimoku" before opening them to reveal that from the pupils to the whites, his eyes had changed in color to that of his iris, a pale blue. He blinked, adjusting to the change as he looked around to see that his vision had changed to show nothing but varying pulsing shades of blue in the shapes of his surroundings as he looked to see only the natural chakra that this forest provided. Trees provided a slow, steady pulse along with most plant life in the area while the few animals he could see amongst it had a deeper, more abundant albeit compressed supply of the faint blue energy. Even the air had a wispy, loose supply of the stuff that floated around almost carelessly when not being pushed by the breeze. He took a breath as he looked around slowly, sure that he would never stop being taken back by the sheer natural beauty he was allowed to peer into by his kekkai genkai and smiled.

After taking his moment to enjoy the scene the boy walked over to he dark, empty-seeming trunk of a dead tree and placed his foot on it, stepping up and walking along it until he reached the first branch. He pulled out a small scroll, quickly unrolling it, and snapping the dead wood off before placing the limb onto the hand he held the paper in and pouring a tiny amount of chakra into it. The limb disappeared with a small puff of smoke and he took another step up the tree, beginning his task with relative ease.

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Kazuki stood as his son released the storage scroll and a small stack of slightly damp limbs emerged from the scroll, falling to the ground. "Good job, Kid." He said with a smile and tussled Noroku's hair, "That should be good for the night, so let's get your training out of the way and after your treatment I'll cook us some dinner and we can relax 'til morning."

Noroku had worried at first, about sparring and practicing his jutsus outside of the village where someone might see and take note and copy them or take he and his father by surprise after or during their sessions, but these fears had been soon laid to rest.

" If they wanted to copy any of our techniques, they would have to be close enough to us to see us or at least within earshot; seeing as how we nearly always use our Kami No Aoimoku, we'd most likely notice their chakra wherever they hid." His father had explained, "and as for them attacking us after or during the training, I'm a high-level reserve Jonin while you are the Aoichi Prodigy and obviously well on your way to becoming one of the strongest fighters our clan will ever produce, already stronger than most Genin even at your own modest age. Even after a workout, I doubt that we could easily be taken down so while I'm around, I swear no one will hurt you." With those words and a pat on his shoulder, Noroku was assured that they were safe and did not worry again.

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Kazuki slipped past Noroku's guard, holding his palm so it barely did not make contact with his son's skin as he pushed a violent wave of chakra through his arm as the eruption of blue energy, visible only to them, erupted from the back of his bicep and the limb briefly went numb as a surge of pain shot through him and the force of the chakra in the blow made him fall back into the snow at his small size. He'd lost that bout.

"Good form, but try to stay ready to adjust and if dodging seems impossible make sure you at least get a shot in to stagger me, that'll make it easier to regain control." Said the blue-haired clan leader as he took a few steps back and resumed a ready pose, watching his son rise to his feet.

"Thanks, Father, I'll try to keep that in mind..." Noroku muttered, staggering to his feet as he clenched his fist to bring back sensitivity and felt the smile stretching across his face. In sparring, only two rules existed: No lethal or permanently damaging blows, and No holding back, even a little, aside from obeying the first rule. Training could be hard, and sparring especially could be painful , but it was well worth it to spend time with his father and make him proud. Every mistake, even in the slightest, could be identified and taken care of as soon as it was made apparent. Perfection was attainable, it just took time and diligence. He'd spent years practicing chakra control and manipulation along with the tutors, and greatest shinobi, in his clan, and now, in his second of year of training in Taijutsu, he was so close to mastering the his clan's distinct style that he could almost taste it. He just had to push a little harder; he just had to prove himself to be the prodigy everyone said he was.

"Ugh" He groaned under his breath as the pins and needles sensation filled his arm and he charged. As he reached the man he ducked below his father's palm and extending arm a half-second before the strike would have landed and watched the chakra flowing from it through his father's chakra network. He shot his palm upward for the left side of his father's chest as his father did the same. They mirrored each other in turning at their hips and twisting so that neither blow would land and Noroku firmly stuck his feet to the ground with a quick, steay pulse of chakra, shooting out straight so that he was no longer crouched. In the instance that Kazuki saw this, the man turned his arm and went to strike again, this time aiming for the boy's abdomen. Just as his palm was an inch away, nearly within range for the strike, he noticed a surge of chakra flowing through his son's network down his leg. Before he could react, he felt the sharp pain of a blow shooting through his back and barely suppressed a loud groan of pain and, in that instance, his entire body froze and Noroku's palm touched to his own to release another jolt of chakra into his hand, immobilizing him from the elbow down. It was obvious that he'd lost but in the position his son was in he knew it was impossible for this to be the final blow and would've had to scold him if it were, as then any other flaws in form or strategy couldn't be seen and addressed should they exist. The next shot was to his chest, just below his left shoulder and actually connected, something rare in their form, as they usually just got close enough to inflict their damage to keep them form being caught in the fraction of a second that it took for a strike to connect. As the palm made contact with his chest and the force of the blow began to push Kazuki back, Noroku grabbed his Father's shoulders and jerked himself up above him, kicking off of his head and catapulting him away to land on one knee 5ft. away a second before falling to his hands and knees, sweat pouring from his face as he gasped for breath.

"I... win..." Noroku began between gasps, "I disabled you... made first strike... and had a blow that I could have made lethal." As he turned, he saw that his Father was on the ground hunched over with a hand on the back of his head. Had he mistakenly kicked his father in the wrong spot, or too hard? His head was spinning as he began to worry but was jolted beck to reality by the sound of his father's voice.

"Hahaha! Damn, kid, I've got to admit it, you got me fair and square going at my all! As long as you keep it up at that level and don't let yourself get rusty you'll be a legitimate Master of the Floating Palms!" Kazuki smiled with obvious pride in his son, but Noroku seemed a bit confused.

"Wait, I thought once I beat you, a True Master, I would be one myself?" The boy asked with a somewhat somber expression on his face after realizing he wasn't a master yet, feeling almost cheated.

"I said once you can beat me, son, not once you do. Masters must be on the same level, the strongest and among the best in their respective field. You can't become an elite by getting lucky and if you gave enough chimps ink one would start writing in Kanji, so it's generally accepted that we have to be able to spar and have the outcome be 50/50 or so. Attaining perfection is hard, and maintaining it is even harder. " Kazuki replied, scratching the sore back of his head. "If I declared you a master of the Floating Palms now, someone could say it wasn't yet proven and it could get out of hand. If you aren't really one yet, you're damn close to it though so don't sweat it. I believe you're on that level now though, so all we need to do is have a few exhibition matches with some of our clansmen and a few other villagers to prove the cut of your jib to them."

"I understand, Father... Thank you for believing in me." Noroku said, feeling a smile not dissimilar to his father's own trademark grin spreading across his face. He seldom saw his father at home, in the Aoichi Compound, as his being both a Reserved Jonin and Head of one of the most influencial clans in Konoha left him very busy fulfilling obligations both Military and Political. To train with his Father, under any circumstance, was considered an honor by anyone in the clan. So unaccustomed to it, he couldn't do much whenever his father praised him aside from suppressing the urge to jump for joy and remaining in a calm, acceptable manner.

"I always believe in you, Son. Not because of your skills or your accomplishments but because you are my son and I love you." Kazuki replied smiling for a moment before adding "Now, you ready to do some Chakra Control/Manipulation exercises?"

"Sure" Noroku replied, beaming with confidence and sheer happiness.

"Good, now this won't be strenuous or extremely time consuming but I'd like to try a new method. We'll find out just how good you are at manipulating while using varying methods of chakra in changes to shape. If you've already mastered everything you've been taught and haven't gotten rusty we'll try covering some new material." Said Kazuki, stretching and standing as Noroku mirrored his pose.

"Okay, what are we doing first?" asked the boy.

"Well, we'll begin with a basic vortex in your hand and move it across your body while maintaining it," Kazuki began.

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Noroku closed his eyes as he focused on the task at hand. From a simple spiral he had gone on to create multiple little vortexes of the blue energy dashing down his legs and across his shoulders before being asked to do something that took him by surprise; maintaining a construct of chakra, another vortex, while moving it farther from himself until he was unable to maintain control. On his first try, he was able to manage a distance of around six inches before it dissipated.

"Alright, Noroku, good job. Most people can barely move it an inch their first time. Now, instead of just guiding the chakra to that vortex and letting it be assimilated try forming it the same way and connecting a thin line of chakra to it, around as thick as your finger, to it and supplying the construct with a supply." Kazuki advised, watching intently as his son retried, this time lasting over twice as long.

"How was that?" Noroku asked, exhaling deeply as he was able to break his concentration.

"Much better, and far ahead of anything I'd expect from anyone else. Chakra manipulation, when taken to such an extreme, can make for exceedingly powerful ninjutsus that are difficult to perform without using several seals that eventually just become too tedious to use in an actual combat situation without some form of defense, and even with said defense will become dangerous to attempt. Most Shinobi tend to use the same jutsus repeatedly to let those familiar seals become a muscle memory and allow them to perform them seallessly once they've used them so many times their chakra even seems to move reflexively. This, however, can become a liability to any ninja who faces an opponent in battle twice or an opponent who has done their homework on them." As Kazuki lectured on Noroku seemed entranced, taking his every word to heart. "take Hatake Kakashi of the Sharingan Eye, for example. He is known for copying over 1,000 Jutsus, even the Rasengan, a sealless jutsu of pure chakra manipulation that even some members of our clan cannot perform and was the favorite of his own Sensei the Fourth Hokage and yet he is only ever known to use his Sharingan, Chidori, and a Summoning contract for Ninja Hounds, a Summon used mostly for tracking and subduing enemies. He could literally have an answer for any situation and yet he only ever uses these familiar, effective jutsus that he thinks are adequate. Now, say he goes against a strategist who has planned against these simple, albeit devastating ninjutsus and summons he would most likely be chakra exhausted from using these and unable to surprise them with anything that could function well against their precise, calculated plan. He would be fucked!" Kazuki realized the rant he'd just gone on as he saw Noroku wide-eyed and began to blush.

"Sorry, he just seriously pisses me off." Kazuki apologized, "Anyways, we of the Aoichi clan have a plethora of chakra, so we tend to have moreoptions, which makes incredibly effective as shinobi. I would rather have 100 Jutsu that I use as regularly as you can than have so many than 997 I don't even remember knowing half the damn time. Also, as we have this aforementioned plethora of chakra, we are able to use much more powerful, chakra-drawing Jutsus than the average Shinobi. For example, Kakashi can use the Chidori three times per day before becoming chakra-exhausted. The average Aoichi Shinobi may use the Chidori 12 times per day, and I myself may use it up to 15 times per day if I use no other intensive jutsus. Needless to say, similar to how Kakashi gets away with using at most three shots of his favorite jutsu, we tend to get away with using less than 12-15 jutsu per day. Because of this, we began developing our own, more powerful jutsus that most shinobi outside our clan would suffer from extreme chakra exhaustion upon attempting. It sounds a bit hypocritical at first, but we learn many and use them whenever needed. Would you rather use Chidori against three enemy shinobi in a day or create a vortex of lightning chakra to plow through a squad of enemy shinobi? " Kazuki paused his lecture as he waited for a response.

"I guess it would depend on the circumstance ," Noroku responded, "in a battle with a single enemy we would want to conserve our chakra in case we need to fight again before our reserves replenish."

"Very good. Unless we are fighting against multiple opponents or an Uchiha, we won't be using our most powerful jutsus very often. A shinobi must be powerful and precise, we must know when to use overwhelming force and when to use a precise killing blow. A huge attack they'll see but will be hard to dodge or a quick, precise attack that will have to hit the perfect spot and is easier to dodge if seen or predicted. A less powerful attack that is still potentially lethal and can be used repeatedly or a single devastating jutsu? Do you use a huge amount of chakra for more destructive power or do you use less on a jutsu you may need to repeat? End the fight now and risk having a lot less chakra later and have a slight chance of having to continue the fight or have a higher chance of missing and becoming injured or even killed later in the fight? Can you corner them and improve your chances of landing your shot? These decisions are the difference between winning and losing. Between life and death. A single miscalculation, a single mistake, can make you lose your own life and the lives of your comrades." Kazuki paused as he glanced up, noticing the sun had begun to go down and checking his watch. "Well, it looks like I lost track of time. My bad, let's go ahead and get to your weapon training."

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Noroku stood in the center of the clearing, blindfolded as his Father pinned up up a few human outline targets, a few in different positions, with a small tag stamped on the back of each and a less-than-significant amount of chakra. The boy wasn't allowed to activate his kekkai genkai during preparation, that would be cheating and his father would have noticed with his own.

"Alright, Kid, let's go!" Kazuki announced as Noroku immediately snatched off his blindfold and reached into his weapons pouches. Instantly activating his Kekkai Genkai, he jumped into the air and launched a volley of Senbon through the hands of the first five targets, which had been positioned as if they were performing hand signs, before throwing a second set through the respective marked eyes, jugular, heart, lungs, and kidneys of the targets, spinning and dodging a volley of blunted kunai as he reached into another two of his weapons pouches to produce a handful of shuriken and kunai, immediately tossing the shuriken into the eyes of five targets in the area the volley had come from. As he landed, jumping to dodge a volley of blunted shuriken, he finally reached for his largest weapons pouch and withdrew a chakram, spinning the sharp steel ring on his finger and tossing it at one of the last five targets as it broke the wooden neck of the target but bounced off of the hard oak bark, crushing another target and repeating the process three times before burying itself into the ground in a few feet away from the final, crushed target.

"How'd I do?" Noroku asked, exhaling a deep visible breath in the cold.

"Great. Nice use of the Senbon and rounded Chakram especially." Kazuki commented, pulling a Senbon from a target to examine it, then picking his teeth with it. "Looks like there isn't much room for improvement here, we'll try moving targets later on and test your skills against them but as accurate as you are I doubt they'll be too difficult for you to master, then we'll move on to underwater targets and sparring using only blunted ranged weapons. After you've mastered those skills we can move on to finding your own short range weapon of choice, and we'll find you a master to teach you how to use it."

"Thank you." Noroku said, feeling somewhat disappointed. "but... when will these weapons lessons end?"

Kazuki raised an eyebrow, his grin fading "You don't like weapons lessons?"

"No, it's not that, it's just... when am I going to learn some jutsus? I mean, I've been training in some way or another since I was four years old and I haven't been able to do an actual jutsu yet. I've seen a few of our clansmen using seals and I know how they all focus chakra and mold it to simplify the manipulation and all but I've never actually done one." Noroku said, unsure of how he built up the courage to ask but the words now coming out like water through a burst dam "Fire Ball, Chidori, Clone, Substitution, Transformation, I've seen and heard about all of them before but I've never been able to do them. My tutors have always told me that you were overseeing my training from afar and I would get to learn one eventually, but they never remembered to ask you about them and I never got a chance to really ask you before, you're so busy that you only ever have time to check in, eat dinner when you're in the village, and sleep. Half the time when I get home from training it's time for dinner and if you got home early enough to be there beforehand you don't want to interrupt my training or are too tired to do much other than rest or spend time with Mom, and I'm glad that you do, but we never really... talk. No more than a few sentences and a lecture here and there so I never get to tell you much."

"Wow... am I really that much of a bastard?" Kazuki couldn't help but think to himself as he looked at the son that he'd known knew less about than he'd ever realized. He always thought he was a good father, for Kami's sake what did he know about his son aside from training and what his wife, Tara, had told him? This was not going on any longer.

"I'm sorry for not always being there, Noroku" he began, "I'm sorry for not talking to you and for all the damned lectures and not spending time with you. Look... when we get back to Konoha, I'll find a way to make more time to spend with you and for now... I'll teach you a few Jutsus." Kazuki stretched and cracked his neck "sound good?".

"Sure, what'll we do first?" Noroku asked, smiling.

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His hands forming the seals he had just learned, Noroku said to himself "Kawarimi no Jutsu!" as he was instantly transported across the field and replaced with a small boulder that had been where he now stood. The jutsu was incredibly simple, a few hand seals and a good dose of chakra were all that was required. In fact, as his father explained, the seals simply helped to focus your chakra and to someone who had practiced chakra control and the jutsu they were completely unnecessary.

"It's that easy?" Noroku said nearly in disbelief.

"Well, yeah, what do you mean?" Kazuki replied, slightly confused.

"All you have to do is chakra manipulation, you don't do anything beyond everything I've learned before!" Noroku exclaimed, not mad but simply taken aback by the sheer simplicity of it "make the chakra compress, make it swirl, make it relase and BING! Jutsu complete! I don't even need the seals to do that, look!" Noroku began using the kawarimi and switching with various logs and boulders around the clearing, "Why does anyone even need a hand seal after the third time using it?!"

"Well, son, not everyone trains in chakra manipulation as much as you. In fact, our clan is known for taking much of our training to extremes so that when we do there 'complicated' techniques it's all so simple that we can do them naturally." Kazuki explained, making sure not to go on a rant.

"Lazy bastards" Noroku sighed, immediately covering his mouth as his father's eyes bulged at the obscenity. "I... umm... sorr-" Noroku began before being inturrupted.

"HAHAHA! Damn, son, why've you been holding back all this time? I was almost certain those stuck-up tutors of yours never let you learn a damn curse word!" Kazuki laughed to himself heartily, smiling from ear to ear. "Alright, now that we know you can pick these jutsus up like nothing we can teach you a few more before the night's over, skip the rest of weapons training, and have your treatment done by the time it gets really dark".

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Noroku couldn't stop smiling as they walked back to camp. He had trained with his father, learned his first ninjutsus, and actually talked to his father! To make things better, his father had promised he'd be able to train with him at home too, this day couldn't possibly get any better! As they approached the sleeping bags and his father released a small wave of chakra to neutralize the traps they'd set for security, he grabbed a small pouch from the snow just within the range of the trap; they'd filled sack with scaled and cleaned fish they'd caught the day before and snow to keep the contents from spoiling. As he withdrew the chilly stiff contents and placed them in a wooden bowl his Father set the campfire, leaving the bowl near the flames to thaw out their meal.

"You know, I never meant to be so distant Noroku" Kazuki said, holding his hands before the warmth of the flames.

"I know." Noroku replied, also warming himself.

"I won't let myself get so caught up in my duties anymore. I'll make more time to spend with you and your mother whenever possible, I promise." Kazuki stretched and turned to face Noroku, "alright, time for your treatment. Come here."

"Right." Noroku said as he walked over and laid down while his father activated their kekkai genkai, placing his hands over the boy's core and pouring his chakra into the boy's reserves, replenishing them from the day's training and quickly filling them to their maximum. Chakra Sharing was common in the Aoichi Clan, used to stretch the Chakra Coils and allowed the shinobi of the clan to have their vast chakra reserves. This practice was the inspiration for the seals given to most Jinchuuriki to allow chakra of their tailed beasts to affect their own anatomy in an extremely similar way. As Kazuki poured the pale blue energy into his son's chakra coils, making sure not to overfill any particular section so as to avoid overfilling it and causing an unbalanced development. as the pulsing blue life filled every section, the coils slowly, minutely began to expand by less than a millimeter. As they did, Kazuki watched diligently for a brief instance before moving his palms away and sighing, feeling a bit lightheaded from the exchange.

"Alright, that's over with" Kazuki said as he grabbed the bowl from the fire and two sharp spits from the bag, impaling the dead fish through their mouths and out their tails "dinner shouldn't take too long, then we can finally get some sleep. I haven't trained all day like that in a while."

"Yeah, at least it wasn't too strenuous. I've gotten used to it over time so it doesn't really bother me as much. Hate those damn treatments though, they make me feel so... bloated. Like a big chakra balloon that's overfilled with air." Noroku remarked, trying to lie still.

"So he says to his old man who has to spend the night feeling like an under-filled balloon" Kazuki replied, yawning with a smile. The day had been long and he'd realized his own ineptitude in juggling his responsibilities, but he was glad he'd been told and could make things right. He would get back to the village and find a way to distribute his power as a clan head and responsibilities to give himself a bit of breathing room to spend some free time with his family.

The aroma of cooking fish brought him out of his reverie as he heard Noroku's stomach growling, though before he could say anything about it his own joined in chorus. He grabbed the wooden spits from the ground and gave one to Noroku, taking a bite of his own. They hadn't thought to gather any herbs to season the meal, and in their hunger they'd taken the fish up before they'd been cooked quite as well as they'd have wished, but as they sat and exchanged small talk it was by far their best meal in a long time, leaving them so warm and well-fed it wasn't long before they were both asleep.

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"Noroku..." Noroku thought he could hear his own name being called, but it seemed distant. Was he dreaming?

"Noroku..." It was closer now, and he could feel himself rising back into consciousness. His eyelids felt heavier than usual, why had he slept so heavily?

"Noroku!" Horror struck Noroku as he willed his eyes open just enough to see and the first image forced them open wide. His father was hurt, bleeding steadily from his gut and arms with a large wound just below his headband. He couldn't believe his eyes as every detail of the image was forcibly imprinting itself onto his mind. His father's lips were moving but he couldn't hear a thing. His blood felt cold, like his veins were filled with ice. A slap brought him back to full consciousness but he still felt hollow.

"Listen to me, Noroku, I haven't got much time left! After we went to bed we were ambushed by a group of assassins sent here to kill us. I cast a Genjutsu on you to keep you from intervening and getting injured yourself and managed to keep you safe but most of our supplies were burned aside from what we kept in the storage scrolls. You need to keep going and make it to Kirigakure as soon as possible." Kazuki explained as fast as he could, knowing his life was measured in minutes now.

"Dad... I'm scared... will you be okay?" Noroku asked, not in any state to be thinking. The situation through.

"No, Son... I won't." Kazuki replied, "I'm not going to last much longer. I need you to take my bag and your own and go West back to our camp, all through there youll find dead assassins. Take all the Ryu on them and anything else of value, put it in a storage scroll, and make your way from there to-" his father's instructions were briefly cut off by a bloody coughing fit before he could continue " to Kirigakure. We.. I mean, you can follow the trail for a couple days and you'll be able to enter the village through a small passageway under the villages Southern Wall... It's in a stream." Kazuki's thoughts were becoming difficult to form now, as he tried to focus while he could " The man we were to meet was Jiraiya of the Sannin. Don't trust anyone else until you've spoken with him. Disguise yourself, use the transformation jutsu I showed you, just keep your identity a secret until you find Jiraiya. Look... " another coughing fit interrupted, this one visibly more painful. "Look for a bar called 'Raiza's'. He'll have... white... hair... I... I love you, Son." Kazuki exhaled the words with his last breath and fell back on the snow, closing his pale blue eyes as Noroku became aware of the tears flowing from his own. He hugged his Father goodbye, not letting go until all warmth had left the larger man.

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Author's Note: While this is a Naruto Fan Fiction the character of Naruto Uzumaki will not be appearing for a while. A few characters may be acting much differently than their Canon counterparts, but this will all be because of the AU divergence point, being the existence of this clan and its ancestors' births. I'll try to explain whenever a character acts OOC but if it seems a bit too obvious or I see fit to withhold information for story purposes. Naruto will not be appearing for a few chapters, as the storyline is not centered around him and the character it is centered around won't be meeting him for a short while. That being said, please enjoy the story. If you do enjoy it remember to follow for updates and write reviews about any chapter you particularly enjoy, don't enjoy, or have something in them that just strikes you as strange.

Translations:

Kami no Aoimoku- Divine Blue eyes

Katon: Shinchoono Honoo- Fire Style: Cautious Flame

Aoichi: Blue Energy

End of Ch.01


	2. Chapter 2, Snow Days

**Hatred By Blood: A Political Extermination**

 **(A Naruto FanFiction)**

 **Chapter 2:**

 **Snow Days**

 **or**

 **Falling In Love In The Forest of Death**

Noroku's eyes were red and swollen, stinging slightly as he looked through the last of the dead assassins' pockets. There had been ten in total; six samurai armed to the teeth, two rogue shinobi, one from Suna and the other he identified with his Father's Bingo Book as a retired Shinobi from Kumo who'd turned traitor and begun assassinating several shinobi among The Elemental Nations and had been spotted most often in The Land of Rice Paddies. The last of the two were easy to identify as he recognized them from Konoha, an Uchiha and a Hyuuga. The Uchiha a had seen amongst the Ninja Police, one of the more respected ones amongst them, and the Hyuuga a branch family member as identified by the Caged Bird seal beneath his Hitai-Ite. This didn't make any sense.

The Hyuugas and Uchihas hated them, but they also hated each other. Their three-way rivalry was nearly as old a Konoha itself, arising when the Aoichi Clan first made a home for itself in Konoha in the early days of the village, their natural skills in chakra control and peculiar style of fighting making them extraordinary fighters and soon renowned shinobi. Their reputation led to a rivalry with the Uchihas, as it was commonplace to consider the outcome of a battle between the elite shinobi of any village, even encouraged in strategists by their Senseis to aid in any future battle they may enter against any shinobi turned rogue whom they'd seen in battle or whose clan they knew well enough to know the standard skills of their shinobi. The most commonly foreseen outcome was that if an Uchiha and an Aoichi of equal skill were to battle, the Aoichi's intense, chakra-intensive attacks would leave any Uchiha who attempted to copy them suffering from chakra exhaustion before long, forcing them to only use their Sharingan to analyze movements for blocking/dodging taijutsu and identifying any ninjutsu they knew the seals of.

Then, one day, an Aoichi Shinobi was captured during a Recon mission and tortured by Rogue Shinobi in an attempt to learn Konoha's secrets and sell the information to the highest bidder. He was rescued before any information could be discovered, but all of his fingers had been amputated so that he could never perform another jutsu or grasp another weapon.

However, after recovering from his injuries, the young shinobi proved unwilling to accept a quiet life as a retired shinobi and instead spent years meditating and training in extreme levels of Chakra Manipulation until he had mastered a new level of controlling and understanding the powerful blue energy. He could focus the chakra in his palms to hold objects and, after great experimentation and practice, even manipulate his inner chakra to simulate the changes that seals made. This new method of using jutsu and greater understanding of chakra proved superior to the standard technique that shinobi used, so the Aoichi Clan began to embrace the style and began training their children to use it before teaching them the standard method, which proved useful when learning new jutsus. This new style of fighting also made copying jutsus via the standard Uchiha Sharingan impossible, as they could not view the inner chakra and there was no outside tell of how to do so aside from the finished product, giving them no way to even predict the jutsus that would be used against them. They had lost their edge against the Aoichis as well as some of their respect as they had been made 2nd best.

Noroku couldn't keep thinking about this. His mind kept going back to the situation he'd been thrown into. His father was dead and he was out alone in the snow-covered wilderness. He had a small fortune in ryou that his father had kept with hims, along with their own supplies as well as those of the assassins. So long as he wasn't attacked again before finding Jiraiya, there was no reason he shouldn't be able to make it out of this. He piled the final load of supplies onto the small storage scroll, careful not to damage the paper, pouring a steady stream of chakra through the weapons and wilderness gear to the containment scroll's seal, watching as the small puff of smoke signified the disappearance of the items. Only one thing left to do before he went back to the trail.

Aoichi Kazuki looked dignified, even in death, in the slim black garb he'd worn beneath his robe. As his tutors had taught him, Noroku had taken his father's robe and removed the strings that held the layers of metal together, separating the chakrams that had been layered as scales from the thick leather string that held them in place as his tutors had taught him. He'd cleaned his father's wounds, broken down his robe, wiped away the blood, and searched the corpses of every assassin already so all that there was left to do would be burying the bodies, and it would be dishonorable to start with an enemy before his own father. He could not procrastinate any longer.

The Gravedigger Tags were created by some cunning shinobi who realized that a burial in the field was sometimes necessary, and Shinobi had no time to dig a hole the 'old-fashioned way', used popularly before the Partner Sealing Scroll was introduced. Earth Chakra specialists could easily bury any number of people in a matter of minutes, if not seconds, but using a Jutsu for the task drew out chakra that not everyone had to spare after a long battle. The Tag was a cheap, easy way to bury corpses without having to use much of any type of energy in a short amount of time. As Noroku held one of said tags, he felt a tear he didn't realize he had left rolling down his cheek and placed the paper on the ground. A slight push of chakra activated the seal, leaving a six-foot hole in the ground below it as the young boy caught the paper before it could float loftily into the hole below,setting it down beside him as he grabbed another of the tags and climbed down into the hole with the body of his father in tow. He laid the paper down against the soil and his father beside it before climbing out.

Pointing his finger at the seal, Noroku released a small beam of chakra into the seal of the tag in the hole as a cloud of smoke filled it and rose to reveal that it had doubled in depth. Nodding and whispering "Goodbye." before firing another small beam of chakra into the tag to release it's seal and fill in the first six feet of the hole.

Grabbing the bodies of the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, Noroku tossed them into the hole roughly, dropping the first tag back into the hole and releasing a final beam of chakra to activate the seal and fill in the hole. This method of burial had been created by a member of their own clan, as they would need to hide the body of an Aoichi without using a Storage Scroll for the corpse, them having so much chakra that the remaining energy in their coils could disrupt the seal. Even tracking dogs wouldn't look lower than the first corpse when following the scent of a decaying body, meaning the secrets within their allies' cadaver could remain confidential and hidden while future retrieval was possible for a proper burial.

With the mess cleaned up and his bags packed, all there was left to do was walk onward to Kiri. He had a long way to go.

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Uchiha Itachi awoke to the ironic sound of birdsong chirping through the Uchiha Compound. He had slept like a baby the previous night, exhausted after hurrying home, hoping for the comfort of sleeping in his own bed, late at night after returning from a long mission carrying a scroll to the border patrol just outside of Tani alongside Inuzuka Hana, a slight scare after having no word from the Patrol Team needing to be looked into. Luckily, it had been a false alarm as their messenger bird had disappeared, leading to a tedious three days of searching for the animal before finding that it had been killed by a hunter, some illiterate peasant who did not understand what he'd done and paid a hefty fine for his ignorant actions.

As he took off the tight black jumpsuit, once again grateful that he had not accepted the offer to join the Anbu. He simply valued the time he spent with Kagome too much to spend so much of it on missions when he could serve Konoha just as much, if not more, training happily with her between missions as a Jonin.

After a quick shower, Itachi put on a similar jumpsuit to the one he'd been too exhausted to change out of, tied his hitai-ite around his forehead, strapped on his kunai bag, and slid a fat bird wallet into his pocket on the way out of the house, making a beeline for the exit of the compound.

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After the second hour of walking in silence, Noroku had not had a moment's distraction from his thoughts. His father was dead. He was alone. All he could do was walk and think, and he wished he could stop himself from doing the latter. He wanted to know why this had happened, why they had killed his father and wanted to kill him. Why hadn't his father let him fight?

It didn't matter, though. No amount of closure was going to help him get to Kiri, and that was all he knew to do until he could find this Jiraiya and go from there. If he could just focus on walking, he'd make it through. If he could just stop thinking, he'd get to Kiri and eventually settle into a new normality. It was just a walk away.

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Itachi walked through the entrance to Training Ground 44, entering The Forest of Death. The snow covering the trees would have most of the animals hiding within sleeping or hiding somewhere warm, not that they'd ever stopped him before. Ever since they'd taken the Chuunin exam, he and Kagome had been going to 44 to meet up in secrecy, unable to have a pleasant relationship with one another in public on any level due to the mutual hatred between their clans. If his father had ever discovered that he'd befriended an Aoichi, he'd surely face a severe punishment, if not completely banished and excommunicated from The Uchiha Clan, and much worse if he discovered what level their relationship had reached. Everywhere outside of that forest, they could show no affection towards one another whatsoever.

"Damn, why is it always you and your girlfriend that I find in my forest?" Anko announced, jumping down from the top of a tree to a closer, lower branch. "Never the damn dango delivery boy, or some steamin' hot stud, just the star-crossed lovers with kunai in tow" the Special Jonin continued, swinging backwards around the branch by the soles of her feet to pull Itachi into a hug, muttering "You're lucky I've grown fond of you, Weasel."

"Glad to hear it." Itachi replied with a smile as they ended the embrace and Anko fell to her feet in front of him with a half front flip and took a few steps before turning to face him.

"Is Kagome here yet?" The Uchiha prodigy asked, pulling a lidded bamboo cup of coffee from his coat pocket and drinking a long swallow of it before offering a sip of the strong, western drink to Anko who happily accepted.

With Shinobi required to leave for missions and returning from them at all hours, the caffeinated beverage was an popular seemingly overnight after being introduced to The Elemental Nations; Shinobi requesting to learn how it was made and bringing it back after stopping to eat while on a mission and the richer ones even investing in the stuff themselves, opening Coffee Stands and requesting that merchants import it. All in all, the hot black beverage had made a few people rich and a lot of people happy.

"Nah, Girly's probably still out grocery shopping; she mentioned it last night." Anko answered, her own stomach rumbling slightly as she took a swallow of coffee and realized she'd skipped breakfast, "Let's cook some lunch, I'm starving".

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Noroku's stomach growled as he walked through the snow, but oddly he didn't feel hungry. He could've easily hunted something down with his Aoimoku and had an easy meal after cleaning and cooking it, but the entire process could take hours to eat a meal he didn't even want.

The wind whipped at his face, snow already piling on his shoulders and head as a few flakes fell from him with every step. He'd stopped focusing on his father's death, thankfully, and instead was daydreaming about going home t

o the Aoichi Compound. He could just bury himself in his training, his father had left him scrolls to give to his tutors, explaining the next steps he had intended to take in training. Several other scrolls had been left for people, most members of the clan though a few for Jiraiya, the Hokage, and even some of his Jonin counterparts he'd grown close to. He would have to sit down and look through them to read the ones left for himself later, once he had reached Kiri and was safe.

He at least knew that he was making progress, the trail had gotten to the large walls that circled the hunting ground. Around 100 ft. from the 30 ft. tall wall from the trail, though he couldn't see anything past it other than grey skies and white clouds covering the sun. All he could hope for was to quietly get through to the end of the trail and enter Kiri quickly.

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In the tower in the center of The Forest of Death, Anko fried sweet dumplings while Itachi boiled a pot of herbal tea. The Tower held many hidden chambers that were blocked off to the public, including a full kitchen that had staff during the Chuunin exams to feed spectators of the third round and the Chuunin/Jonin Proctors who supervised the exam. After taking a liking to 44, Anko had gotten permission from the Yondaime to live there, before he died in the battle with the Kyuubi, in exchange for her watching over the forest and tower, keeping the beasts of the forest from damaging the tower or getting loose while even tending to the plants and weaker animals, maintaining the delicate balance that was necessary to assure that the grounds could support life at any time, allowing it to be used for 5 days of survival by a large number of people, while not making food easy to find and assuring that shelter was scarce. The agreement worked out well; Anko had a rent-free apartment with all the necessities and the Yondaime had a single Kunoichi replacing three shifts of Anbu and Ninja Police who'd been sharing the maintenance tasks before.

"Am I late, Anko?" asked a long blue-haired Kunoichi wearing a pale blue dress with Hitai-ite around her neck as she walked into the kitchen with a bag of groceries, sniffing the air for a moment before noticing Itachi and dashing across the room to kiss him. "You're back!" she exclaimed, handing Anko the brown paper bag as she embraced the Uchiha.

"I've noticed. I missed you too, Kagome." Itachi replied with a smile before the tea kettle behind them began to whistle with steam and he turned to pour the liquid into three bamboo cups on a wooden platter, setting them on a table as Anko began putting the finishing touches on the Dango. Seeing this, Kagome reached into the bag, producing a large bowl of fried rice and grabbing three smaller bowls from a cabinet to distribute it. Setting the table, they all sat to eat while Itachi explained how his mission had gone.

"So, some stupid hunter was killing the carrier hawks?", Anko asked, "I swear if I had a ryu for every problem caused by idiots."

"Can't really blame the guy, he had no idea what he was doing.", Itachi explained, "He never learned to read and his father had only told him to avoid using the hawks as a food source at all costs, and with game so scarce in this Winter he had no choice. His mother died in childbirth, so his father moved out to the deepest part of the wilderness he could find to raise him and get away from anything that could remind him of her. The poor bastard still thought the Yondaime was Hokage. He had to use all the money his father had left behind to cover the fine, not that he needed the stuff out there on his own like that. I felt so bad for him that I gave him all the food I'd brought to help him get through it."

"That was nice of you", said Kagome, "hard to believe you used to be the arrogant Uchiha prodigy who just couldn't handle being equally matched by a girl".

"I-It wasn't that you were a g-" Itachi replied before being interrupted by a kiss.

"I know", Kagome replied, "I just like teasing you... It was definitely because I'm an Aoichi, now wasn't it?"

"No, I, just-' Itachi began.

"Oh, stop teasing your pet weasel", Anko cut in with a laugh, "that's my job".

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Noroku had never been so cold in his life, and couldn't have cared less. He had stopped paying attention to his surroundings and had, instead, dived into his thoughts and was daydreaming about going home again. Not about seeing the Aoichi Compound on the way back, not about meeting Jiraiya and feeling safe again, but months down the line when he would nearly have stopped thinking about it. Life would honestly not change much, his father was rarely there to begin with and the elders of his clan would simply act democratically until he could assume the position of Clan Head.

He had no idea how long he'd been walking with no sun as a visible reference. He hadn't been paying enough attention to check the positions of the shadows around him at any point, and doing so now wouldn't help him much anyhow. He was going to keep walking until he made it to Kiri. No matter how long it took, he could keep going. When had his head started to ache?

Had he truly been so caught up in his thoughts that he hadn't even noticed a headache? He tried to put a hand to his forehead, in an attempt to ease the throbbing a bit, and realized his ungloved fingers had gone numb. This was bad. He started running as fast as he could, quickly realizing how exhausted he was, and after less than a minute began slowing down. What had they taught him to do in this situation? His mind was cloudy and remembering lessons was somehow difficult as that throbbing ache resounded through the nerves around his brain and echoed through his mind. What was it? You had to... to... to pour chakra into your legs, through the muscles, to supplement your natural energy and strength.

As he did so he realized just how much that push of chakra supplemented as his surroundings became a white blur. His chakra reserves were depleting like the air in an untied balloon, but he had no choice. He had to hope this would be enough to get him somewhere warm. He wasn't going to last much longer if he didn't.

As he ran, he saw something in his path, just barely in recognizing it before he could turn and crashed into it. It was a wild boar, fat and old, that he killed on impact as his knee crashed into it's side but was sent tumbling over and flying into the air by as it surprised him and he shot way too much chakra out at once. He went a good distance through the air before hitting the ground, his landing softened by a mound of snow as he fell.

His chakra was nearly gone and he could barely move as the snow that filled the sleeves of his robe sucked out the last bit of warmth and feeling in his arms. He cried out in pain as his legs stopped feeling the rush of chakra and now felt the soreness of his intense run on top of the day's travel. He felt the pain starting to dull and was thankful before realizing the snow was numbing them as well. He was going to die.

He struggled to pull himself up with his chakra and what muscles he could still feel. He thought quickly and realized a way out of this situation, though it would take most of the chakra he had left. He focused on making the snow around him all cling to him using a similar technique to the tree walking one, but then overloaded it throuch every possible area to release chakra so that the snow exploded around him, leaving him on a patch of wet ground. As he looked around, he realized he had gone extremely far but had not yet reached the end. Looking over the wall that encircled the grounds, however, he saw the top of a house. If he could reach that couse, he'd find shelter and could rest for a moment.

He could not stand yet, or move his arm below the elbow, bur managed to crawl across the snow and trail towards the wall, hoping for a way to get past it, but found none. Looking up at the house, he realized that there was something on the roof of it amongst the stacked snow. Looking closer, he saw that it was almost like a stack of bricks and had to be around the size of a man who was hunched over. Noroku pulled himself up and, unable to move his hands at all, began manipulating his remaining inner chakra as carefully as he could, knowing he would only have one shot at this.

"Kawarimi no Jutsu!" He shouted as he performed the technique and was transported to the roof of the house, no snow below him as it was atop the object he'd switched with. He looked arounf and realized the roof had been damaged somehow, with a large hole in it that he could not see from below and several tiles missing, meaning that the object he switched with was most likely a large stack of new tiles. He looked around to see where he was and saw that he was in a compound, with only homes around him and no stores or other businesses. Looking over the treetops he saw a few buildings in the distance, however, which had to be Kiri.

He crawled forward, falling through the hole to the attic of the building and landing on snow covering the hardwood surface. Looking around, he saw a few pieces of furniture with cloths over them and bit the cord on his robe, pulling with his teeth to release the string that held the cold, damp garment together and pushed with his shoulders so that he could roll out of it and towards one of the furnishings. As he reached it, he bit the hanging, dusty cloth and, rolling back, he managed to wrap himself in the makeshift blanket before closing his eyes and allowing the slight, growing warmth and his own exhaustion to envelop him.

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Anko stood on the Judge's platform in the Melee Arena ot the tower in 44 as Itachi assumed a modified advanced goken stance while Kagome poured just a bit of chakra into her palms, taking a loose position of the Floating Palms.

"Begin!" Anko shouted as the two began charging at one another, Sharingan and Aoimoku active, and began exchanging blows that mostly missed as they had grown nearly too familiar with one another's styles.

Jumping back, Kagome spun two chakrams on her fingers and with a flick of her wrist sent the heavy metal rings flying towards Itachi, who caught one with the blade of a Kunai while dodging the other, turning as it bounced off of the reinforced wall and firing the one he caught to collide with the rebounding chakram in mid-air before they clattered to the ground. As he turned to face his opponent again, however, he immediately felt her ankles around his jaw as she flipped over him and catapulted him into the air with her legs.

As Itachi was launched into the air, he reached into his shuriken pouch and released a volley of the bladed stars, all of which Kagome blocked with a Kunai. As the red-eyed Uchiha neared the ground, channeling chakra through his feet to avoid rolling forward on impact, Kagome threw a Kunai with a paper tag attached to it to the ground just beneath Itachi as he landed, the chakra-charged paper reading 'Boom'. Unable to steer away, Itachi landed on the fake paper tag and lost the sparring round.

"Uchiha Itachi has been blown from here to Suna," Anko announced comically, "Game, Aoichi Kagome!"

"Nice." Itachi commented, rubbing his neck where she'd grabbed him, "You never were easy to predict."

"Just had to distract you and the fight was mine" Kagome responded, "You can't predict my movements if you can't see me and I'm not stupid, all I have to do it know when to strike you."

"Yeah, yeah." Itachi nodded, kissing his lover's cheek "Time for the next match." he said as he and approached the Judge's platform, passing Anko as she took her place across from Kagome.

"Mitarashi Anko vs Aoichi Kagome, Begin!" Itachi announced, stepping back as Anko charged at Kagome with a blunted kunai in hand, striking with her Hebi style

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Noroku awoke in the attic thankful for the thickness of the cloth he'd wrapped himself in shortly before losing consciousness. looking over, he saw that his robe had dried and unwrapped himself, pulling the heavy metal garment on as he stood and stretched before retrieving a small mirror from his bag.

"Hmm... " He said to himself, "I can't know if the people here were involved in what happened. I can't let anyone recognize me."The boy said, grabbing a kunai and chopping the majority of his hair off, leaving it short and spiked. Next, he looked through his bag and found storage scroll, applying a bit of chakra from his renewed reserves to the seal as a dozen containers of black ink appeared in a puff of smoke and he poured it into his hair, combing it through his thick hair until there wasn't a speck of blue left, even in his eyebrows. Then, looking through the attic, he found an armoire with several sets of shinobi garments in various styles and sizes, only sharing the symbol of the Kaguya Clan on the back, which he guessed was the clan this compound belonged to. Eventually finding a black outfit that was almost his size, Noroku poured the ink over the symbol and evenly spread it with a brush, donning the outfit and sealing his own in a scroll before finally climbing back out through the hole up to the roof and scanning the compound oncemore.

The compound almost seemed to have been a part of the Hunting grounds before being settled, around as wide as the trail and using a wall made of the same stone that had been used on the one around the trail to encircle the compound. backing against large hills. against the hill, the wall had a large opening into what seemed to be a cave into the side of the mountain that he couldn't see into from that distance. Around the compound, there were a few houses but not a soul out, presumably due to the snowstorm. Activating his Kekkai Genkai, though, he found that even within the homes as far as he could see there wasn't anyone in the compound at all. The buildings hadn't deteriorated much at all, and there was no blood staining the walls which meant the Kaguyas had left recently and most likely by choice. Looking down, however, he was surprised to find that the house he'd taken refuge in housed the only current inhabitant, someone laying down and most likely asleep.

This was all just too bizarre. Not wanting to confront the sole inhabitant for fear of finding him to be an enemy, Noroku stretched a bit more as he examined the closest rooftop; an 8ft. gap between the two roofs what were identical aside from the hole in the one he stood on. His limbs were extremely stiff, his legs were sore, his stomach was tying itself into knots from hunger, and his head was beginning to ache again. He was finally hungry, and the need for sustenance was stabbing through him with a vengeful intent to make up for lost time. Remembering the cave, he realized that it would have made a perfect storeroom for grains and other emergency supplies of food as well as a deep freezer in the winter months for meats. In the oldest clans of Konoha, large cellars were sometimes found being used for the same purpose.

Noroku poured a steady flow of chakra into his legs to loosen and support them, leaping to the nearest roof and exerting more chakra through the soles of his feet as he landed while running and continued to run, dashing down the outer wall of the house now that he was protected from being easily discovered and darted for the cave in the hillside.

As he reached the entrance of the cave, Noroku stopped in his tracks and activated his Aoimoku again to peer into it and around the walls, first seeing that seals had been arranged around the entrance to form a barrier, but the seals seemed a bit different than those he'd been taught to identify. Weird, but he was too hungry to think long on the subject. Releasing a pulse of chakra, he disrupted the charge the seals held long enough to walk in, looking around through the shades of chakra he saw in the dark cave, nearly falling back as he realized that he was not the only person inside.

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Itachi smiled as he dashed through the forest, just ahead of Kagome, with his Sharingan active as he inspected every inch of terrain ahead of him. This race was something Kagome had thought of, a way to keep their perception sharp while not stopping, even for a second. On missions, they wouldn't be able to stand still and look around for any mistakes, and pursuing an enemy at full speed could distract them so they ran into a trap. Anko got a different type of training in this, as she would lay the traps at night and be forced to innovate and improve as her comrades learned her techniques. The Forest Of Death was initially a grueling survival challenge during The Chuunin Exams with limited resources and a plethora of deadly beasts, but after seeing how her future friends had managed to get through the challenge with ease the other Exam Proctors had accused Anko of making it 'too easy', or somehow making sure that the two had passed through dubious means. In outrage, Anko began studying traps to convert the dangerous training ground into a Death Trap, the first year following this having only nine of the unprepared Genin move on to the final stage, all of them requiring time to recover from injuries. The Academy began teaching more advanced courses in trap-making and identification that year, and the other proctors never questioned her eptitude again.

Itachi caught a glimpse of a blue beam the width of a hair hit the ground ahead of him as he felt a rope tighten against his ankle, jumping into the air before it could propel him upwards and cutting the rope with a kunai before it became taut while Kagome ran ahead of him below. Closing the distance would be difficult, especially if she didn't get caught in a trap. As he landed, he charged forward at his maximum speed in an attempt to close the gap, but it was too late. Within a minute, Kagome reached the end of the course and won the race.

"Good job, Girly." Anko remarked, rewarding Kagome with a crisp high-five. "Hard to believe he's one of the most promising Shinobi in Konoha, watching you dust him like that. Must really get on his nerves, not being the best, it looks like he's seeing red."

"I never wanted to be the best", Itachi reminded the Kunoichi, "I just wanted to do my best."

"Yeah, well, you better not be getting sloppy now", Anko remarked, "I can't get any better if you don't."

As they walked back to the tower, Kagome mentioned that she had to leave early, as the Aoichi Clan Elders had placed a curfew in effect for all members of the clan, not telling any other members why. As she left, parting with a kiss, Itachi and Anko made their way to the river to check the chemical levels.

They tossed in a few chunks of minerals every so often to keep the training ground from becoming a misnomer, as the water flowed and weathered away at the rocks to release a special chemical into the water. As it was, the chemical was harmless and the water was fine, but if the water were boiled and the chemical were heated it would react and become a strong drug that left anyone who consumed it unconscious for hours, leaving them helpless and their teammates at a severe disadvantage. Anything boiled in the water would be soaked in the drug, and the fish that swam in the chemically-altered water had the chemical in their bodies, meaning anyone who cooked them would be affected by the drug after eating them.

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"Who are you?" A voice asked from the darkness as Noroku jumped into a ready position before noticing the faint chakra of a seal on the front of a cell. The cell was made by placing a large wall of iron walls in front of a section of the cave that was carved out, with a seal in the center of the cell's door. In it, as Noroku's eyes adjusted to the pitch darkness, he could barely make out a boy who looked to be around his age. His chakra was weak.

"I'm sorry, I'm starving and freezing... was just looking for some food and somewhere warm," Noroku began, not exactly lying, "why are you in that cage?".

"I don't know", the voice answered, sounding like a young boy, "I've been in here as long as I can remember."

"You've... never been outside?" Noroku began, unable to comprehend what he'd just heard. Pity and rage filled him as he stepped closer and began examining the seal, his Aoimoku allowing him to see the exact design due to the chakra in the ink. He hadn't mastered seals, but as a chakra control and 'Shinobi basics' lesson, his tutors had taught him how to identify many of the basic characters used for them, and by extension a few of the more advanced ones which were merely advanced versions and combinations of the simpler ones. This one was completely designed to keep everything within a container from tampering with the seal or the surface the seal was on, with nothing preventing anyone on the outside from removing it. Before he could think, the young Aoichi ripped the paper from the cage and ripped it to shreds, throwing it to the ground. Next, he grabbed the lock from the cell and poured a large amount of chakra from his palm, making chinks appear until the slim metal broke, and he could open the door.

"Come on, I'm getting you out." He began, stepping in and helping up the boy up only for him to fall, obviously weak.

"Why are you doing this?", the boy began, pulling himself up, "You don't even know me, and nobody else has cared."

"I'm Noroku," he began, pulling the boy over his shoulders as his inner rage, pity, and disgust built inside him; he could feel the outline of each of the boy's ribs through the tattered robe the child was wearing, "and anyone with a heart would do exactly what I'm doing ."

"...I'm Kimimaro" was all the boy could say, taken aback by what Noroku had said.

Carrying Kimimaro out of the cell, Noroku set him down to look deeper in the cave, confirming that it was also used to store food.

'They were starving him with food less than 30 ft away...' Noroku thought to himself, his hands shaking with anger as he piled meats and preserves onto a storage scroll, sealing away as many as he could before storing them away and grabbing a final jar of preserves, putting them in his pocket as he walked back to Kimimaro to find that he'd passed out, tearing a piece of fabric from his robe to tie around his eyes as a blindfold and hefting him over his shoulders again with a newfound strength. His own hunger had seemingly disappeared as he felt completely ashamed of what the first thing he'd said to the boy.

'I'm starving and freezing'... he'd said this to someone who actually was starving and close to death. He would never forgive himself for his own ignorance.

Adjusting his hold on Kimimaro, he activated his Aoimoku to make sure no one was near, but felt a sharp jolt of pain as, in the instance that he used it, he saw a brighter form of chakra than he'd ever seen trailing across the sky. No one was out there, but he couldn't use his Aoimoku again while whatever he'd seen was out there. With nowhere else to go, and unable to stay there without risking being caught, he flooded his legs with chakra and charged for the exit of the cave.

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The Northern Lights danced across the sky as Hyuuga Hiashi broke the seal that had been left to protect the entrance of the Aoichi Compound, Uchiha Fugaku nodding to him as they both charged into the Compound, a small army of shinobi from both of their clans following silently behind them. After studying the history of the Aoichi Clan, he had discovered a crippling weakness the Blue-eyed Bastards had kept a secret. Every 20 years, the Northern Lights became visible and made their greatest strength into a liability.

The Lights were, though not everyone knew it, a huge manifestation of natural chakra; in fact, it was one of the most powerful sources of natural chakra in the known world. For an Aoichi, seeing anything near the lights would be like seeing something 12x brighter than the sun, and because after years of use their kekkei genkai bled into their natural vision, they could not stop themselves from seeing them and would be defenseless, writhing in agony. It was almost unsurprising to find that the Aoichis were all asleep, under a genjutsu to keep themselves from seeing the spectral anomaly.

Looking down, he stared at at the sleeping six-year-old and sighed, glancing over at Uchiha Fugaku and knowing that none of the Aoichi could be allowed to live, and that he could not be allowed to hesitate. He put the tip of a kunai to the child's temple and, moving it a few inches away, did his best to make it quick.

Fugaku Uchiha walked away from the child's bedroom and silently contemplated the heinous act he was taking part in. He had fought in the last Great Shinobi War and still couldn't watch Hiashi killing the child. What a mess he'd made, he realized as he looked out a window to see other Hyuugas and members of his own clan moving from house to house with chilling efficiency. They were murdering a clan for the betterment of their own. They were murdering children for the betterment of their clan.

Hiashi walked out from the child's room, a bloody kunai in hand, and they moved on to the Master Bedroom, silently eliminating the rest of the household. It had been decided at the last meeting between the clans, not a word was to be said during the act, neither party would show any emotion. It would be a cold, calculated, silent night of erasing the biggest rival to either of their clans from history. Most of the Uchiha Shinobi were there, and every Hyuuga Shinobi had come as well. The only absent Uchiha was Itachi, as he had been a large factor in Fugaku agreeing to this genocide.

Hiashi had told him that, with his damned Byakugan, he'd seen Itachi in The Forest Death, embracing an Aoichi. Not believing this at first, he'd hidden in Training Ground 44 and witnessed it himself shortly thereafter. His own son, with a member of the clan that was responsible for their utter lack of respect and power in Konoha. His own son was sleeping with the enemy, and this simply could not be allowed. It was the last straw, he could not allow this clan to interfere with or slight his own again. It ended tonight.

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Sirens blared in the morning as Shinobi scattered around the village, evacuating citizens as Itachi burst from his home, having hastily dressed at his rude awakening. The Uchiha Compound was empty, but just beyond the gate he saw hordes of citizens being hastily led through the streets, and Anko just within it was weeping silently.

He ran to her, frantically asking what had happened and whether the village was under attack, but her only response was to hand him a bloodstained blue Hitai-Ite with the name 'Aoichi Kagome' sewn into the backside of it. Itachi fell to his knees, bawling like an infant as the normally sarcastic and teasing kunoichi held him, and wept with him.

They sat there, wallowing in their misery for long minutes that felt like hours before

Anko finally stood, helping Itachi to his feet and saying "The Hokage called for you, he asked me to bring you to him personally."

Without a word, Itachi nodded and began walking towards the Hokage's Tower, with Anko at his side.

 **End of Ch.02**

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Author's Note:**

 **Sorry about how long this update took, not that I have many/any readers, but for future reference I don't have wifi at home so it's difficult to update regularly at times. Please write reviews if you don't like it, and follow/favorite if you do; I'll happily take constructive criticism.**


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